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Traditional costume is worn by
many shamans in Siberia and
Mongolia, and one of the most
noticeable features of this costume
is the metal discs which are tied
onto it. These discs are Chinese
metal mirrors, generally made of
bronze and sometimes thousands
of years old; they form a very
important part of the ceremonial
equipment used in much Siberian
and Mongolian shamanism.
China’s ancient civilisation
influenced its neighbours - Korea
and Japan to the east, Tibet and
Central Asia to the west, and
Siberia to north. This influence
included many of the shamanic and
magical practices of these regions.
The history of ceremonial
bronze mirrors in China can be
traced back 4,000 years. They are
generally round, have a central
raised knob on the back with a
hole in it, and decoration on the
non-reflective side. They were
often made using the ‘lost wax’
method in which a clay mould is
made around a wax, mirror-shaped
original. The enclosed wax shape
is removed by heating the mould,
and then molten bronze is poured
into the mirror-shaped cavity left by
the ‘lost wax’. The bronze is finally
M
MIIRRORS
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of tth
Soul
The use of Metal Mirrors
in Asian Shamanism
Nicholas Breeze Wood
top: Evenki
shaman’s coat (and detail of
mirrors) from Manchuria
right: Han and Tang dynasty
bronze mirrors from graves.
seperated from the clay mould,
revealing an exact copy of the
original wax shape.
The high point of Chinese mirror
making was from the start of the
Han (206 BCE - 220 CE) to the end
of the Tang Dynasties (618 - 907
CE), and many shaman’s mirrors
date back to these periods, although
new mirrors have been made
continually up to the present day.
MAGICAL MIRRORS
Mirrors in China have always held a
magical as well as a practical
purpose. They are used to ward off
and reflect evil, and they have played
an important part in traditional Feng
Shui, where they are used both to
reflect negative influences, and alter
the shapes of things to increase
positive influences.
Magical mirrors are often found
as grave goods in archeological
digs. They had a major role in
ancient Chinese death traditions,
where a mirror was often placed
on the dead persons chest as a
‘heart protecting mirror’ to keep
the person safe on their journey to
the next world, and wall-paintings
in Chinese tombs show people
holding up mirrors faced outward,
to frighten spirits away.
In Asia, many shamans (even
those who have abandoned the
rest of their ceremonial dress)
wear at least one mirror. This may
be suspended on a cord which
passes through the hole in the
raised knob, or tied on a simple
tabard of cloth or leather.
Mirrors have different names
depending on the region the shaman
comes from, for instance, they are
called toli in Mongolia, panaptu in
Manchuria and melong in Tibet,
although here the mirrors used are
generally not antique Chinese ones
(see the article on Tibetan Oracles in
Sacred Hoop, Issue 47).
The most desirable shaman’s
mirrors are the very old ones, and
they do not have to be perfectly
shiny to be useful for shamanising,
indeed many of them are hazy or
even black with age.
The use of mirrors in shamanic
societies varies a little depending
on the people. They are used by
some tribal groups as an aid to
seeing the other worlds in a
manner similar to scrying. This
scrying includes seeing into the
future, looking for lost objects and
diagnostic work, where the shaman
will gaze into the reflection of the
sick person and determine the
nature of their illness.
In healing, the mirror can be
used not only to reflect illness,
but also as a container for
healing power (windhorse)
which is gathered in the mirror
and then transferred to the
sick person by placing the
mirror on them. Sarangerel
(see the article on page 12) in
her book ‘Riding Windhorses’,
further mentions that a mirror in
which healing energy has been
accumulated may also be put into
water to turn the water in to arshaan
(spiritually empowered nectar) which
the sick person can drink.
Mirrors can be used as
containers for spirits, either the
shaman’s own helper spirits, the
spirits of disease taken from the
sick person, or as a container used
by the shaman to hold missing parts
of the sick person’s soul which they
have found in the spirit worlds
during a soul retrieval ceremony.
A mirror may also be used as a
window or portal through which the
shaman passes to enter the spirit
worlds on a shamanic journey.
TIBETAN MELONG MIRRORS
The Tibetan melong has it’s
origins in the ancient Chinese
shamanic mirrors of Asia, and
have many associated practices in
common with Mongolian and
Siberian shamanism; but over the
years the ‘mirror's’ physical
appearance has changed.
Melong are generally small metal
discs, concave on one side and
convex on the other. They may be
simple, undecorated discs of metal,
or they may be decorated on one or
both sides with Buddhist astrological
symbols or Buddhist images. They
are sometimes made from a special
blend of eight metals; gold, silver,
mercury, copper, nickel, tin, iron
(sometimes from meteorites) and
lead, but more commonly are simply
brass or silver.
The melong is still used and worn
by many lamas, astrologers, healers
and lay people. They are used as
aids to divination, astrological
charms, containers of beneficial ‘sky
energy’ and protectors against harm.
Sky energy is a beneficial energetic
influence in Tibetan geomancy, and
melongs help to activate it in order
to improve health and general wellbeing, and to increase lifespan.
Melongs are also used to wash
sacred objects. To do this, the
object will be reflected in the
melong and water poured over the
reflection, so cleansing it.
Often, small melong are worn as
amulets, and here it is important to
remember the different effects
attributed to the convex and concave
sides. The convex side reflects by
distorting and magnifying the images
in it, like a shaving mirror, and worn
with this side facing outwards, the
wearer is protected. The concave
side focuses light into a central spot,
and increases energy, so it is worn
facing the body to increase personal
windhorse energy.
There is a folk
belief that melong
dispel troublesome
mental states and
emotions. To do this
a melong is held at
arms length,
concave side
towards you. then
you visualise your
problems leaving
your mind and
passing through the melong, when
they will appear on the outer,
convex side, and will be dissipated.
one in places where shamans
were buried. Sometimes a
buried mirror would speak
to a shaman in a dream,
the spirits in the mirror
wanting to work with
the living shaman
instead of staying with
their deceased owner.
In the West,
however, mirrors are
more easily ‘hunted’
among traders in
specialist antiques! But
here the price of a genuine
old mirror can range from
several hundred to several
thousand pounds. However, if you
are not too bothered about the age
and provenance of a mirror, there
are many excellent Chinese
reproductions - often described as
genuine antiques - to be found on
ebay. Despite ‘ageing effects’
these reproductions are generally
very well made and accurate
copies of ancient ones and can be
bought for just a few pounds.
Tibetan melong can be bought
quite easily at generally a low cost
from suppliers of Tibetan Buddhist
ritual objects.
left: modern
reproduction toli
bought on ebay
below: front and
back views of an
antique Tibetan
melong charm
Some useful websites if you are searching
for old or reproduction mirrors include:
www.garudatrading.co.uk (melong)
www.tibetanspirit.com (melong)
www.asiawind.com (original mirrors)
www.markajohnson.com (original mirrors)
www.ebay.com (original & copies of mirrors and melong)
left: silver melong from
Garuda Trading, showing
its convex front
below: Mongolian
Shaman Sarangerel in
ceremony wearing a toli
FINDING YOUR OWN MIRROR
If you wish to obtain your own
mirror, there are several ways you
can do so.
Traditionally, when they died, a
shaman might well be buried with
their mirrors, or a mirror may be
deliberately passed on to the next
generation.
Or a shaman might ‘hunt’ a
mirror by going on a quest to find
SH
SPRING 2005
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